The recommended retail price of six top selling brands between February 1970 to March 2014 Sources: Cancer Council, NSW Retail Tobacco Traders' Association

British American Tobacco Australia spokesman Scott McIntyre told HuffPost Australia the hikes had created a new cut-price class of cigarettes.

“In order to compete with black market cigarettes and loose leaf tobacco, this new market of very cheap legal cigarettes has been created. Rothmans sells for about $12 or $13 and a year ago it had zero market share but today it’s about 12 per cent of the market share.

“People who want to smoke are just going into a store and asking for the cheapest pack.”